Way back in 2017, there was an
Ahsoka Tano Ally Pack released for Imperial Assault, and in it was one of my paintings, Fool Me Once. Fool Me Once was painted in 2015 for an Imperial Assault miniature expansion that was eventually canceled. Hard to believe that it has been five years since I painted this, and it took two years for the art to be used. As with most of the art I have done for FFG and Star Wars, it always gets used and often reused, used again, and then repurposed for good measure. When this project came my way, I was so excited. Not only was I finally getting to do the main art for an expansion, but I was also creating the packing art and designing a Star Wars miniature. One of the few things that I have never been able to achieve in my career as an artist has been to design a Star Wars action figure. I got close a couple of times, but it never worked out. With this assignment, I thought I had finally done it. In the end, it didn't happen, but I designed it, so that kind of counts. Maybe a little. This would have been a fantastic Outer Rim Smuggler, but at the end of the day, it became Fool Me Once. Here is how the final painting for Fool Me Once turned out.
Fool Me Once
Star Wars Imperial Assault - Ahsoka Tano Ally Pack
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Art Director - Deb Freytag
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
As with nearly all of my paintings, I began the process with a photo shoot. I dressed up and posed for the Trandoshan guards and the Shistavanen (wolfman) smuggler hero. The painting needed to depict the hero sneaking through starport customs with illicit goods. In this case, it is the packaging for the Slave One X-Wing miniature that contained my Wookiee Gunner card. I also set up my Star Wars action figures in a little diorama to work out composition lighting. With all the reference collected, I began working on thumbnails. In the end, I submitted three options for this piece.
Fool Me Once -Thumbnails
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
Looking back at these now, I am a little shocked that they went with option 'C.' Options 'A' and 'B,' to my eyes now, are way more dynamic and exciting. Five years on, I would have really liked to have painted option 'A,' that one is really cool with the slight dutch angle. Oh well, what is in the past is out of reach. They chose 'C,' and I painted 'C.' Now that I had an approved thumbnail, it was time to get started on the final drawing.
Fool Me Once - Drawing
Star Wars Imperial Assault - Ahsoka Tano Ally Pack
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper
Art Director - Deb Freytag
Original - SOLD
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
There were a couple of small edits that were requested with the drawing that I addressed on the paper and not digitally. You can see those edits in the animated process below. At the same time, i was working on the final drawing for the painting, I was working on the miniature design for the Outer Rim Smuggler. They did not require a full turnaround of the design, but they needed me to extend the figure past the borders of the painting. This was all simple enough, and it gave me a chance to do another drawing and finally design a Star Wars figure. We can now see how well that turned out. Here is the final miniature design for what would have been the Outer Rim Smuggler.
Outer Rim Smuggler - Miniature design
Star Wars Imperial Assault
11 x 14 - Pencil on paper
Art Director - Deb Freytag
Original - SOLD
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
With all the pieces in place, it was time to work on the final painting. This time, I have included everything that went into the painting, from the thumbnail to the final painting, so that you can see how vital my thumbnails are to my process and the final painting. I work it all out from the beginning, and each additional step adds detail and refines the overall image.
Now is an excellent time to talk about graffiti in the final painting. This painting made it in just before Lucas Films put its foot down about artists writing things in the Star Wars written language of Aurebesh. Apparently, some artists were sneaking words into their paintings that were irrelevant to the work or the world-building. With all of my Aurebesh in my work, I have been world-building and adding a little something extra to the piece. You cannot read any of it at the size the art is printed. In the end, I was asked to blur the text out just a little and not to obliterate it since it only reads, "Yavin 4 was an inside job", "Down with the Empire," and "Hunt or be hunted." I will talk more on another day regarding all the Aurebesh in my Star Wars paintings and the story I was telling with assignments. A story that FFG and Lucas Film were never aware of.
All that said, here is the animated process of the painting coming together from the thumbnails to the completed painting.
Fool Me Once - Process steps
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
Once the painting was finalized and approved, I needed to make the art that would have been used as the packing art for the Outer Rim Smuggler. With all of the miniature packaging, there is a painted figure of what the miniature looks like. This hero shot usually comes from the main art for the miniature pack, which is also the art that the mini is based on. Everything is consistent, and things can be reused. I digitally cut out the smuggler and did some digital cleanup of the art. To match the other sets, I smoothed out the painted texture because nearly all the packing art is digital and very smooth and polished. It was all a quick turnaround for the cleanup and did not take away from the original image. Here is what would have been the packing art for the Outer Rim Smuggler.
Outer Rim Smuggler - Packaging figure
Star Wars Imperial Assault
6 x 9.3 - Digital finish over Acrylic and pencil on board
Art Director - Deb Freytag
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
So much work for what ended up being a tiny little card in another miniature's expansion pack. This is the way of things, and so much happens long after the art is done and has little to nothing to do with all the work and time put into the assignment. Things changed, and at the end of the day, it was decided that this miniature set was not getting a release. Thankfully the art was used eventually. Here again, is the final art for Fool Me Once.
Fool Me Once
14 x 11 - Acrylic and pencil on board
© 2017 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
Here is how the art was eventually used. Another heavy crop and tiny print size. Thankfully the art was reused for the Star Wars LCG expansion of Desperate Circumstances, where it was printed larger and more of it was used. It took a while, but most art saw the light of day. That is much more than I can say about some of my work. But that is a conversation for another day.
Fool Me Once in handy dandy card form
Clever Distraction in handy dandy card form
That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...
